Plenti, a static site generator built on Golang and Svelte, has a new way of doing business and that's without the help of a database. That's right, all your code, content and revisions are flat files that live right inside your project. You don't have to worry about saving data in a SQL database that feels like a complicated Excel sheet you would end up managing and hosting on your server. No, no, and NO. Plenti's information is all stored with Git, meaning the code and content is tracked and logged statically on services such as GitHub and GitLab.
Let's review Jamstack.org's definition of the terminology JAMstack:
"Jamstack is the new standard architecture for the web. Using Git workflows and modern build tools, pre-rendered content is served to a CDN and made dynamic through APIs and serverless functions. Technologies in the stack include JavaScript frameworks, Static Site Generators, Headless CMSs, and CDNs."
A quick overview of how Plenti works: It takes instructions written in Svelte and processes them using the Svelte compiler directly in V8 in order to 'translate' them to regular Javascript that the browser can read. This is all handled in a self-contained binary that is downloaded when your first install Plenti, so you don't need any dependencies like Go, NodeJS, NPM, Rollup, or Webpack on your computer for this process to run. That means all you need is some basic knowledge of Svelte to start using Plenti. Even if you've never used Svelte before, it's quick to pick up and you can get really far with only having a fundamental understanding of HTML and CSS. Every time you make changes to your project, Plenti processes the information and generates static HTML files in the background alongside Javascript in the foreground of the site. This is a lightning fast experience for site visitors/users while still providing great SEO to clients.
The great thing about having all these features is the simplicity of builds and the barriers it breaks for new developers wanting to enter to the web dev space. And if you were to take all the websites and look at what features are actually needed, I think you will find there are very few requiring anything more than a simple JAMstack application.
Jim Fisk (@jimafisk) - the creator of Plenti - has a few upcoming talks scheduled. Bring your curiosity and questions to the following free virtual events:
Talk Title: "Behind the Scenes with Plenti - A Svelte Static Site Generator"
Date: 2/17/2021
Time: 6:00 PM EST
Where: JAMstack Boston Meetup
Link: https://www.meetup.com/JAMstack-Boston/events/276320284/Talk Title: "Plenti: A Svelte Static Site Generator with No Dependencies"
Date: 3/19/2021
Time:11:00 AM - 11:45 AM EST
Where: Nerd Summit 2021
Link: https://nerdsummit.org/#11
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